I'll Wait Up For You Dear
by M'rika
Summary: James goes to Lily's on Christmas Eve, to give her presents while the others aren't there. She suspects the worst, but he surprises her.  Oneshot.


An: One thing you need to know is that this is based on 'Santa Baby'. If you've never heard it, you may want to youtube it. Either by Ertha Kitt or Kylie Minogue

I'll Wait Up For You Dear

Lily was in her pyjamas, cradling a cup of tea in her hands. She wasn't really watching the 'Wizard of Oz' for the gazillionth time, but was instead mentally preparing herself for tomorrow. For some unknown reason, she was cooking Christmas dinner for James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. She suspected it had a lot to do with too much vodka last time they'd gone out, but with three "witnesses" there was no way they were letting her out of it. She took a sip of her tea, and nearly spilt it when there was a knock at the door. She set the mug down on the floor, and pulling on a coat, opened the door.

"Hey." It was James, who was grinning, despite the cold, and seemed to have a huge bag with him. He frowned, "Why are you wearing a coat?"

"It's cold and I just answered the door," She stood aside to let him in, thankfully shutting the door behind him after he'd kissed her hello.

"It's not _that_ cold," he replied, hanging up his coat and scarf on his coat hook. Last time she'd tried to hang someone else's coat on there, he'd had a fit and she'd learnt that it was easier to just accept that this hook was his and his alone.

"Did you apparate?"

"Course."

"Then you were outside for all of three minutes," she pointed out, as she hung her coat up. "And didn't have time to feel the cold." She smiled. "I thought you were a Jehovah's Witness and I'd be stood there for a while." He shrugged, still clutching the oversized bag. "So what brings you out on Christmas Eve? I thought you'd be playing Scrabble with your parents."

"Hey, you know we never play Scrabble," he protested, before grinning. "Monopoly is much more our style."

She laughed, pushing him into the lounge. The Christmas tree lights were on, and when she turned the television off, the room felt very Christmassy. She'd already put some presents under the tree to save time tomorrow, and James sat down on the carpet and pulled more out of the bag. There were some wrapped in blue paper and others wrapped in red. The blue ones he put under the tree whilst the red he left in front of him.

"Presents?" She queried. "On Christmas Eve? James, you've only got to wait twelve more hours."  
"I know." He shrugged, checking the labels on the ones that were still in front of him." But I wanted to see you open yours without the guys."

She rolled her eyes. "If you've bought more slutty underwear I'm going to kill you"

"No!" He protested."If I'd bought you that I'd want you to open in front of the others. Peter would go red, Moony'd look at me pityingly even though he'd think it funny, and Sirius'd insist on modelling it over his clothes."

She raised an eyebrow that signalled she didn't quite trust him. "Okay, I'll open them now."

He grinned. "Great." He handed her the first.

She looked at the tag to find that there was a large one written on it. She looked at him curiously.

"There's a specific order to them," he explained. "And I couldn't guarantee that I'd remember."

She laughed, as she tore into the wrapping paper, which died as she held up the gift. "It's a load of wires."

"No," he corrected with a grin. "It's cable."

She looked bemused. "You've bought me cable?"

"Yeah. But it's not TV cable, it's just cable." He looked so pleased with himself that she had to laugh.

"Why did you buy me cable?" she asked. She felt like there was some joke she was missing, and looked to James to explain it.

"Well I couldn't afford a sable coat, and you wouldn't have worn it anyway, so I bought you cable because it rhymed." A grin was still dancing across his face, and she laughed, leaning across to kiss him.

"Okay. There are so many questions that still need to be answered, but I'm not sure I want to ask them," she teased.

"Have the next one." He handed her a small cuboid present. She unwrapped it to reveal a toy car.

"A car?" she asked. "Oh oh oh, wait let me guess." He laughed at her excitement. "You couldn't afford a real car, and I tend to apparate anyway so you bought me a model car instead."

"No." He reached over to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "It's a fifty four convertible, light blue."

She frowned as she half recognised the sentence. "That sounds…really familiar."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really? Where could you possibly have heard it before?" His voice was so laden with something like sarcasm that she had to push him.

"Tell me!"

"Um…no." He smiled at her pout. "You'll figure it out."

She huffed for a little while but then he offered her the third present. It was another model, but this time of a yacht. This time she didn't ask any questions but tore into the next.

"You haven't signed these," she said, looking at the cheques in her hand.

"I have too!" he protested. "With an x."

"And there's a picture of a house."

"It's a duplex," he replied, then grinned as he saw the realisation dawn on her face.

"It's the song isn't it?" she asked with a laugh. "It's the song and it took me until now to figure it out." She was hitting him with a pillow, and he yelped, but he was laughing too much to fight back. "Isn't it?"

"Yes," he forced the word out in between laughs." It's the song that you sing ALL the time in winter."

She relinquished the pillow. "So you've slipped cable under the tree for me?" He nodded, snickering slightly at her unintentional innuendo. "And a fifty four convertible too, and its light blue. And you got me a yacht, because it's not a lot. And a duplex and cheques, and you've signed your x on the line."

He burst into laughter again. "Yeah. And it took you four presents to realise."

"So where's my platinum mine? She asked, feigning seriousness.  
"It would have taken too long to deliver," he replied, equally seriously. "I'm sorry."

"I'll forgive you." She smiled and gave a quick kiss. "So is the next one from Tiffany's?"

He handed her another present. "Find out."

She opened it rapidly, and opened the duck egg blue box. She gasped. "Oh my- James, how did you afford this?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets." He smiled at her. "Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful." She carefully picked the necklace out of the box, and marvelled at how sparkly it was. "Will you do the clasp?" She held back her hair as he fastened the necklace around her neck. She turned to kiss him, but he pulled away.

"There's one more present," he whispered, handing her a small package.

She took, and looked at the tag, which read 'The Last'. She looked at him quizzically and he shrugged. "I wrapped it first and didn't know how many other presents you were going to get."

She laughed then discarded the wrapping paper, and opened the jewellery box. It was ring, like the last lines of the song, and it was beautiful. It was silver with a cluster of precious stones. She looked up at James and tilted her head. "Is this a-"

He smiled. "I don't ever want to have to apparate again if I want to see you. I never want to have to leave at the end of the night ever again. And if in fifty years time, I still make you laugh because I bought you presents and you didn't realise the significance, then I'll be a happy man."

"Are you proposing?" she asked, a smile spreading across her face.

"Yes." He suddenly looked panicked. "Did I do it wrong? Is this not what you expected? We can go to a restaurant if you want or I can do it in front of my parents if you want. I just thought-"

She was laughing. Properly laughing, and it didn't seem like she could stop. He frowned, wondering what exactly was so funny. She tried to regain her composure, then handed him a present that had been under the tree. "Open it."

He slowly did as he was told, and laughed when he saw the silver band that would have been his Christmas present. "You were going to propose?" he asked. "In front of the guys?"

"Well," she began, "I figured that way they could be the first to congratulate us."

He pulled her closer and kissed her. "Yes," he murmured. "Yes, Lily Evans, I will marry you."

She beamed and hugged him. "And just so you know, I would have said yes after the toy car. I always wanted a convertible."


End file.
